A/N: A big thanks to SirenBanshee. You are one amazing beta!
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There was a moment of silence as Phasma listened to the reports she was getting through her com, then she huffed with some relief. "It seems he didn't get far, sir," she said, stepping back. "He's being held under guard at the hangar."
"Let's go," Kylo answered just as curt as Phasma was before.
Anger surfaced as he made his way to the hangar. Who would dare to intrude his facility? Who was so bold and so stupid?
He was all but running, Phasma close behind him. He only slowed down to take a steadying breath right before he stepped into the hangar. Kylo took in the sight before him. There was a ship that had obviously just landed standing in the middle of the landing bay, its ramp deployed. A group of Guard had their blasters aimed at the figure standing at the bottom of the ramp. More Guard stood at the ready, keeping personnel out of the way.
The unknown person seemed oddly unbothered by the situation. His stance was nonchalant and relaxed. There was even a slight smile on his lips.
"Ah, the mighty Supreme Leader," he said in a mocking tone.
Kylo didn't respond, merely looked the man up and down. He ignored the way Phasma shifted to stand just in front of him, ready to take anything that might be oncoming, even though she knew it was highly unnecessary.
The man was wearing loose, rough clothing. He seemed like a commoner from any random planet. The nonchalance, however, betrayed this assessment, as did the fact that he looked well-trained. There was something about the way he looked at Kylo that made him wary of the man.
"Who are you?" Kylo demanded.
The man shifted, causing a ripple through the Guard. He merely smirked in response.
"You've got them well-trained," he commented, eyeing the row of blasters aimed in his direction.
"Who are you?" Kylo repeated.
By now, the Knights had filed into the hangar as well. They remained to the side, not interfering. Kylo glanced at them, only to see Daze and Quicksilver look shocked. He watched as they grabbed for each other's hands, but had no time to contemplate that odd reaction as the man finally answered his question.
"I guess you could call me Rogue. It's as good a name as any. I go by many, you see."
It didn't escape Kylo's notice that 'Rogue' was eyeing his Knights as well, a curious look on his face.
"What did you hope to gain with arriving here unannounced?"
Rogue huffed. "You have become so polite, Supreme Leader," he said. "Not long ago, you would have killed me on the spot."
Kylo narrowed his eyes, starting to contemplate doing just that.
"Did I hit a nerve?" Rogue continued to mock. "All right. It seems I was rightly informed anyway. You see, I heard you were training a select few of the Knights in something … special."
This time, a ripple ran through most of the people present. Some of the Guard glanced his way as if wondering what to do. Kylo clenched his teeth in order to suppress the rage that suddenly flooded him. He could feel Rey's careful, concerned touch through the bond but he growled a 'not now' at her, hoping she would forgive him his harshness once she found out what was happening.
"Sir," Phasma spoke up. "We might want to take this somewhere else?"
"Where?" he barked at her. "We are currently lacking a prison."
"Any room would do, sir," Phasma answered, unruffled.
Kylo growled low. "Lock him in one of the storage rooms," he commanded. "And round up the crew of the ship. Nobody leaves until this has been cleared up."
It was obvious to all that he meant to find and kill whoever leaked information to this Rogue.
"Ah," Rogue said. "I'd rather not be locked up at all."
His stance shifted away from being nonchalant and into something a lot more dangerous. It was suddenly obvious that they were dealing with a man trained in combat.
Kylo was preparing for a fight when Daze and Quicksilver suddenly ran over, placing themselves between Kylo and Rogue.
"What are you doing?" Kylo barked, a rage running through him that he hadn't felt for a long time.
"Supreme Leader," Daze said, making a bow that looked oddly nervous. "We will explain."
At the same time, Quicksilver had stepped closer to Rogue. "Go with the Guard," he was pleading. "You knew this would be an end either way when you decided to risk it."
"On your word," Rogue demanded of Quicksilver.
"On our word," Quicksilver answered.
Kylo glared at both of his Knights. It took all he had not to demand explanations there and then, but he realised the information would be sensitive.
"Take him!" he barked to his Guard instead. "Ember, dump Hux on a Guard. I want you by my side. This facility is currently on lockdown."
A chorus of 'Yes, sir!' ran through the hangar, and Rogue didn't protest any further as he was cuffed and lead towards one of the storage rooms.
"You two," Kylo barked at Daze and Quicksilver, who were sharing frequent glances. "My office. Now!"
"You'll go first," Phasma added.
Her tone conveyed just how little she trusted them and made clear that any wrong move would lead to their deaths. They both simply nodded and lead the way. Phasma walked between them and Kylo; Ember remained at his shoulder. He glanced at the latter and saw how she was frowning at the two other Knights.
"Any idea what this is about?" Kylo ground out.
"I have a hunch," she answered, sounding grim, "but I'm going to let them talk first."
Kylo gritted his teeth so hard it hurt his jaw. Getting into his office was like a choreographed routine, with Phasma staying between him and the Knights at all time. Ember took a frontal, defensive position as well. Daze and Quicksilver faced him, then both kneeled with their heads bowed and their hands on their hearts.
"You know this guy?" Kylo asked dangerously.
"We do," Daze spoke up. "But we know him under the name Elias. He's-" Daze took a breath. "He's a rogue Knight."
Kylo stared at them, disbelieving. He then glanced at Ember who nodded once, confirming this was what she had been thinking earlier.
"It was in the way he moved," she stated.
"Explain!" he barked at the two Knights, his hands balled tightly into fists.
Silence reigned. Kylo was about to yell at them again when Quicksilver spoke up.
"Tell him, Daze. There's no hiding it now."
"It will endanger you."
"It will endanger us both, and we're already here."
Daze glanced slightly to his right, to Quicksilver.
"I know," Quicksilver said.
After a sigh, Daze finally started talking. "Supreme Leader, you have already guessed our relationship," he started. "We- Well, we were tired of hiding and planning on defecting," he rushed out, the words hardly separated from each other.
There was a moment of tense silence where both Knights seemed to prepare for the worst. When nothing happened, Daze risked a glance towards Kylo before continuing.
"Elias, or Rogue, was our contact. He would give us new names, new identities, and set us up in our new lives. He has gone through it all himself, so we figured he would know how to go about it. We were at the final stages of preparation when you summoned us here.
"It complicated things. Leaving here would be a lot more difficult than leaving a random ship. We put our plans on hold until we could assess the situation more. Then you told us why we were summoned. You told us not to hide anymore. We were … doubtful of your sincerity, but we decided to test it. When there indeed was no adverse reaction to our interactions, we decided to call off the defection."
"There were reasons to give," Quicksilver added.
"Yes," Daze agreed. "We had to give him a reason."
"What did you tell him?" Kylo asked.
"Not much," Daze was quick to assure him. "Only that you, sir, seemed different and that we wanted to give you a chance. He already knew at that point that we were summoned along with three other Knights. That's all we planned to tell him but he wasn't buying it."
"He thought worse," Quicksilver added.
"Yes, he did," Daze continued. "Started talking about bailing us out. So we-" He halted, obviously having to force the next words out of his mouth. "We told him you were going to teach us the Force, sir."
"You did what?" Kylo snapped.
"We told him about the Force, sir," Daze repeated.
"And you decided to just tell him the location of this Base along with it?" Kylo yelled.
"No!" Daze exclaimed. "We did not tell him that. I swear, we did not."
"It hurts us too," Quicksilver said.
"Excuse me?" Kylo hissed at him.
"What Quicksilver wants to say, sir," Daze quickly intercepted, "is that we've been agonising over this for days now. It's why we haven't accepted your offer yet. It felt disrespectful to accept it without telling you the truth, but we feared for our lives if we did."
He bowed his head even lower. "We've committed a capital offence, sir. May the Supreme Leader do as he pleases."
Quicksilver followed Daze's example and bowed lower as well.
Kylo let out an enraged yell, slamming his fist on his desk. Phasma looked over her shoulder at him but didn't comment.
"Lock them in one of their rooms. I don't care which one. Ember, you guard. Hold onto the Force and make sure he," he motioned at Quicksilver, "doesn't slip out. And confiscate their weapons."
Ember blinked at him in surprise, but accepted his orders with a nod. He knew he would have to explain later, but he wasn't going to care about that for now. He watched as both Daze and Quicksilver voluntarily started stripping themselves of their weapons. As the door to his office opened, Kylo spotted a selection of Guard in the hallway.
"Three of you," he barked at them, "accompany Ember. The other three stay with me."
He closed the door again as soon as the Knights had departed. Phasma immediately faced him.
"Sir? Are you alright?"
"No," he snapped back. "How did this happen?" He took a deep breath. "I need to tell Rey to stop worrying. I snapped at her earlier."
"Of course, sir. Shall I step out as well?"
"You can stay if you want. I'll be talking to thin air, though."
Phasma shrugged and settled next to the door.
Rey appeared as soon as he reached out to her. "Ben!" she exclaimed. "What by the Force is going on? I haven't felt you this angry since, well, you know."
"There's been an intruder."
"What?" Rey yelled, all concern.
He gave her a grim smile and allowed her to see his surroundings.
"Oh. Phasma is here."
"Yes, she is," he answered with a glance at Phasma.
Phasma seemed to understand as she gave a short salute.
"Hi, back to her," Rey said, a bit sheepishly.
Kylo rolled his eyes. "She says 'hello' back," he told Phasma, who nodded in response.
"But, Ben," Rey said, urgency back in her voice, "what happened? Was that why you were so angry?"
"Yes. I apologise for snapping at you."
"No, don't. It's okay. Just tell me what's going on."
He gave her an abbreviated version of what had been said and done so far. "I only wanted you to stop worrying," he finished his explanation. "We'll get this sorted out, but I doubt my temper will improve much."
Rey snorted. "Guess not," she said. "Just make sure you're safe."
"He's only one man," he tried to reassure her.
"Who seems to know too much. Be careful, Ben."
He touched her cheek, not caring about how odd it would look to Phasma. "I will be."
"Good." She smiled up at him. "Wait, isn't Quicksilver the one you think is still using the Force?"
"Yes, which is why I have Ember guarding them. I told her to keep hold on the Force."
"Is that enough? Does she know any mind-to-mind techniques yet?"
"No, but it should at least warn her that something is going on."
Rey frowned.
"They have nowhere to go, Rey," he tried reassuring her again. "The Base is on lockdown. Even if they get out of their quarters, they'll be hard pressed to go anywhere else."
"Okay," Rey gave in, still looking worried. "I'll let you get to the bottom of this. I wish I could help you."
"You already did. Haven't you noticed I'm much calmer now?"
"The influence is uncanny," Phasma mumbled.
Rey burst out in giggles and Kylo slowly turned to regard Phasma. "Thank you for that observation," he shot back.
"Anytime, sir."
Rey laughed even more and Kylo looked at her fondly.
"I need to go," he said with regret as Rey's laughter subsided.
"Okay," she agreed. "See you tonight, Ben. Be safe."
He nodded at her and she disappeared from view. After dragging a hand through his hair, he turned towards Phasma.
"Let's go."